Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to electronic devices. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for client-initiated tethering for electronic devices.
Related Art
Many modern electronic devices (e.g., smart phones, tablet computers, laptops, etc.) are able to access the Internet. For example, such devices may include a cellular network interface and be configured with an account with a cellular service provider that enables accessing the Internet using a cellular network. Some of these devices (herein referred to as “tethering devices”) provide a “tethering” service, which is a service that enables a tethering device to share the access to the Internet with one or more client devices. Tethering devices provide tethering networks that client devices can join and use to access the Internet via the tethering service on the tethering devices. For example, some tethering devices provide a wireless local area network (WLAN) such as a Wi-Fi network or a personal area wireless network (PAN) such as a Bluetooth network that one or more client devices can join and use to access the Internet via the tethering service.
In tethering devices, the tethering service is inactive (i.e., clients cannot access the Internet using the tethering service) until a user manually activates the tethering service. Manually activating the tethering service and then joining the client device to the tethering network to enable the client device to access the tethering service requires a user to perform number of operations. For example, for some tethering devices, a user must retrieve the tethering device (e.g., from a pocket, purse, or other location), unlock or power-up the tethering device, navigate various menus and submenus to reach an interface for activating the tethering service, and then activate the tethering service using a corresponding element in the interface. After the tethering service is activated as described, the tethering device starts to provide the tethering network (i.e., causes a network interface in the tethering device to begin providing the tethering network). The user must then read a password from the interface in the tethering device, navigate to an interface for joining wireless networks on the client device, select the tethering network in the interface in the client device to cause the client device to connect to the tethering network, and enter the password read from the tethering device into an entry box presented by the client device to join the client device to the tethering network. Performing these operations to activate the tethering service and join the client device to the tethering network can be annoying for users.
In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same figure elements.